LAWRENCE - For weeks, the Kansas offense has carried the day, while the defense has leaked like a sieve.

Harold Bechard - The Hutchinson News

Saturday

Nov 15, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 15, 2008 at 5:00 PM

But, on a bone-chilling, windy Saturday in Memorial Stadium, the roles were reversed against fourth-ranked Texas.

The defense did its part against the Longhorns. The offense didn't.

Late in the second quarter, it was a 7-0 game.

It might as well been 27-0, or 37-0.

No one was going to handle the Texas on this day. The Longhorns were just bigger, stronger, faster and simply better than a Kansas team that 52 weeks ago, was heading into the Missouri game ranked No. 2 in the country and the owner of an 11-0 record.

One year later, the Jayhawks will literally limp into Arrowhead Stadium in two weeks with a 6-5 record after the 35-7 loss to Texas. They will go to a bowl game for the second straight year - that is assured and it will most likely be the Insight.com Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., on Dec. 31 - but not with the same swagger of a year ago.

Not even close.

Texas made sure of that, pounding the Jayhawks with a big, physical defense all day long.

"They just knocked people down and were knocking balls loose," said Texas coach Mack Brown, who has his team in position to represent the Big 12 South in the conference championship game again.

The Longhorns (10-1, 6-1) still need some help, but an Oklahoma win at home over Texas Tech next week would throw the Big 12 South into a three-way tie and bring the BCS rankings into the mix.

The Jayhawks could write a book this fall on the Big Three of the Big 12 South. They hung with Oklahoma for much of the time in Norman before losing 45-35. They were never in it against Texas Tech in Lawrence, absorbing a 63-21 loss, and were physically beaten up Saturday against Texas.

"I thought this was our best day on defense," Brown said.

The same couldn't be said of the offense, which struggled all day long. Injuries certainly didn't help. Jake Sharp didn't play the second half and Kerry Meier was hobbled with a hamstring problem, but even with those two at full speed, it wouldn't have mattered.

When this one was over, Brown gave KU quarterback Todd Reesing a friendly bear hug during the post-game handshakes. It wasn't the first time Reesing had been wrapped up by the Longhorns.

Reesing's numbers were respectable - 25 of 50 completions for 258 yards - but he was sacked four times and hammered to the turf numerous other times.

Reesing limped off the field on several occasions and threw his hands up in disgust more than once.

"I'm upset we didn't give it a better run," said Reesing, a native of Austin and life-long Longhorn fans before signing with the Jayhawks. "We're not going to hang our heads and feel bad for ourselves, but we just wish we could have had a better game for our seniors."

The defense gave the KU offense plenty of opportunities, especially in the first half when the Jayhawks were in position to tie the game or take the lead.

The Jayhawks drove to the Texas 26-yard line late in the first quarter, but was stopped on fourth down. They reached the Longhorn 38 on their next possession but were denied on fourth-and-1 once again.

The Kansas defense, which came into the game ranked eighth in the Big 12 in total defense, held Texas to less than 100 yards of total offense until the final three minutes of the first half when the Longhorns drove 67 yards for their second touchdown.

The Kansas offense, however, puttered along and had a grand total of three rushing yards in the first and 102 total.

This from an offensive until that came into the game averaging 443 yards and 35 points a game.

"We were just too inconsistent," said Reesing. "We didn't convert any fourth downs and couldn't get our running game established. We did some good things and also some bad things. But, it wasn't the kind of effort we needed to beat a team like Texas."